Not long before his role in Stagecoach, John Wayne was rejected for the lead role in The Plainsman, a lesser-known entry into the Western genre. John Wayne was the face of Western movies for decades, starring in some of the genre’s all-time best films, including Red River and The Searchers. Wayne earned his reputation as the top Western star of the time, and continues to be remembered as one of the medium’s greatest icons.

Given his star power, it’s no surprise that Wayne was usually high on the list of options for the main character when a major Western movie was going into production. However, getting to this point took a great deal of time, as Wayne went a full decade into his career before he was able to really make a name for himself. That finally happened in 1939 when he starred as the Ringo Kid in John Ford’s Stagecoach. But it might have happened if a different critically-acclaimed director had accepted Wayne’s request for a leading part.

John Wayne Wanted To Star In The Plainsman

He Lost The Part To Gary Cooper

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, The Plainsman was a 1936 Western that starred Gary Cooper as real-life lawman Wild Bill Hickok. The Paramount film featured a slew of historical figures ᴀssociated with the American Wild West, including Calamity Jane and William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. The movie performed well at the box office, and went over well critically as well, with its 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes being a testament to its reputation. It’s commonly regarded as one of Gary Cooper’s best Westerns, but if John Wayne had his way, that never would have been the case. Wayne made a push to get the role of Hickok ahead of Cooper’s casting.

According to Michael Munn’s biography of the actor, John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth, the actor sought the role of Wild Bill Hickok when he heard that Cecil B. DeMille was attached to the project. DeMille was a well-respected director in Hollywood at the time, even though this was long before his masterpiece, The Ten Commandments. Munn’s book recounts Wayne explaining that he had asked for a chance to get the role, and so his agent arranged for him to meet with DeMille to discuss the part. But the meeting ultimately went nowhere, with DeMille mentioning his role in The Big Trail, and then saying that “a lot of water had pᴀssed under the bridge” since the movie.

John Wayne summed up CeMille’s decision not to cast him, noting, “To him, I was now just a minor star of B-movie Westerns.” In a sense, DeMille wasn’t wrong if this was indeed his perception of Wayne’s situation; starring in 1930’s The Big Trail was a huge career move for Wayne, but nothing he made after that – until Stagecoach – measured up to it. When Wayne was lobbying for the starring role in The Plainsman, he hadn’t been involved in a major production in six years.

John Wayne Almost Lost His Breakout Role To Gary Cooper Too

There Was Talk Of Gary Cooper Starring In Stagecoach Instead Of John Wayne

John Wayne finally escaped his reputation as a Western B-movie star when he starred in Stagecoach. Interestingly, he ran the risk of losing this role to Gary Cooper as well. Munn wrote in his book that when John Ford was putting together the cast for Stagecoach, the director faced some opposition when it came to Wayne playing the Ringo Kid. Presumably because of his recent history, Stagecoach producer Walter Wanger preferred Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich for the male and female leads.

Admittedly, Wanger’s position was understandable, considering that Cooper was a bigger star, and therefore a more reliable option, just as the situation was with The Plainsman. But Ford had worked with Wayne before on The Big Trial and likely had reason to be confident in the actor’s abilities. As Munn explained in John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth, John Ford resisted calls for Wayne to be removed from the project and forged ahead. Clearly, he made the right decision.